About the Author

Cynthia Duncan received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, specializing in contemporary Latin American literature and culture. She's traveled extensively in Latin America, especially Mexico and the Spanish Caribbean, she's the author of Unraveling the Real: The Fantastic in Spanish-American Ficciones (Temple University Press, 2010), and more than 50 scholarly articles and book chapters about Latin American culture, literature and film. For the past 30 years, she's taught undergraduate and graduate classes in Spanish and Portuguese at major state universities, with an interdisciplinary approach to Latin American cultural studies. Currently, she's a Professor of Hispanic Studies at University of Washington Tacoma.

Cynthia is also an initiated priestess of Santería. Her religious name is Eñi Achó Iyá, which means "The Yellow Dress of my Mother." She's the daughter of Ochún. Her "rama" or religious lineage is the Sevilla family of the Sociedad el Cristo, Palmira Cuba, founded by Nicolás Sevilla in the late 1800s. Nicolás Sevilla was born a slave and owned by the Iznaga family, wealthy sugar plantation owners in Las Villas province, near the city of Cienfuegos. When slavery was abolished, he changed his name from Nicolás Iznaga to Nicolás Sevilla, and settled in the town of Palmira, made up primarily of ex-slaves who worked on the sugar plantations there. Nicolás lived to an advanced old age and had 27 known children. The house he built on Independencia Street in Palmira is still inhabited by his descendents, and the current president of the Sociedad el Cristo is Eni Achó Iya's Godfather in Ifá, Babalawo Eddy Capote Sevilla (Iwori Bogbe), who's the grandson of the original founder. Her godmother in Ocha is Aladé, the great-granddaughter of Nicolás Sevilla, and her Oyugbona (second godmother) is Okikilo, another member of the family.

The Sociedad el Cristo is an Ifa-centric house, meaning that most males in the lineage are Babalawos (Regla de Ifa priests, who work directly with Orula), whereas women in the family are Santeras (Regla de Ocha Priestesses). The Regla de Ifa and the Regla de Ocha are part of the same Lucumí tradition, and in the Sociedad el Cristo, they work together and complement each other. On occasion, el Cristo works with the Sociedad San Roque and the Sociedad Santa Bárbara, with whom they share some common ancestors. These three groups in Palmira Cuba are among the foundational lineages of Cuba, and Palmira is recognized worldwide as one of the cradles of the Lucumí religion. As in Africa, kinship bonds through the ancestors are important in Palmira. Among Eni Achó Iyá's ancestors are Francisca Entensa (Changó Gumí), Guadalupe Estable (Okalanke), Ma Fea Felicia Fernández, Valeriana Molina (Ochun Tokio), Miguel Iznaga (Oturanico), Nicoco Sevilla (Oyekun Meyi), Mario Fernández, Facundo Sevilla (Obedi Kaka), Pablo Sevilla (Ofún Bile) and Agustín Hernández.

Santería is a religion that must be practiced, experienced, and understood through the body and soul, not only the mind. Eni Achó Iyá brings her scholarly and teaching experience to the religion, but she writes about it as a person who lives inside it, as an Omi Ochún (daughter of Ochún). Because the knowledge comes to her from her godparents, her religious elders, and her ancestors, she bows down to them and thanks them for their guidance when she writes and educates others about the religion.